Grown Ups Movie Review

Grown Ups? Not So Great.

I can't say I was particularly excited to see Grown Ups. It just happened to be the next film in my Netflix que.

However, in some ways, I feel like I was the target audience for Grown Ups. For two reasons:

1) I am married, I recently bought a house and not too long ago I became a father, so, I feel like I have had some firsthand experience in becoming a grown up.

2) I was a huge fan of Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and David Spade in the early '90s during their time on Saturday Night Live and was in my early teens when their big hits like Happy Gilmore and Tommy Boy were released in theaters. Therefore you would think the humor might still appeal to me.

So, If I am correct and I was indeed the target audience for the movie
Grown Ups, the filmmakers couldn't have missed the mark anymore.

Grown Ups Movie Poster | Source

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Grown Ups Plot

Grown Ups takes place in present day, 30 some years after a group of friends won a youth basketball league championship together. After the death of their childhood coach, the gang is reunited at his funeral where they go on to spend the weekend together at a cabin for the Fourth of July.

Lenny (Adam Sandler) is a successful Hollywood agent married to a fashion designer (Salma Hayek) with two spoiled sons. Rob (Rob Schneider) is a sort of holistic practitioner and love guru who moves from ex-wife to ex-wife. Eric (Kevin James) is laid-off with a wife and two children. Kurt (Chris Rock) is a "house husband" who cooks and cleans all day for his lawyer wife and Marcus (David Spade) is an aging bachelor with an alcohol problem.Let the hilarity ensue!

By the end of the weekend, the man-children come to discover what is most important in life ... friendship.

Gag!!!!

There are fart jokes, old women jokes, (insert generic toilet humor here) jokes and so on.

Then the credits roll.

Then you turn off the DVD and immediately put it into its Netflix envelope and hope the next movie is a little better. Which isn't asking for much.

Who Thought Grown Ups Would Be Good?

To be honest, I'm not sure there was a script for Grown Ups and I think the pitch for the film went something like this:

Filmmaker: Hi Production Company X. Do you remember when Saturday Night Live was funny in 1991? What if we took the cast from SNL in 1991 and just put them in a cabin together where they can make fart jokes?Production Company X: Brilliant! What will you call it?Filmmaker: Well, those guys are all a little older now. How about Grown Ups?Production Company X: Brilliant!End Scene

Unfortunately for Mr. Sandler, Schneider, Spade, Rock and James, I think their comedy reign has come to an end.

The torch was passed last decade to the likes of Will Ferrell, Steve Carell and Ben Stiller and as of late, the Judd Apatow crew of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd.

Instead of making another film, Adam Sandler and his cronies may want to gracefully take a bow to the new generation and call it a career.

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Final Thought: Grown Ups

Don't see Grown Ups. It isn't funny at all. Most comedy films have at least one or two moments that can force a chuckle out of you. Grown Ups has no such moments.

1.5/5 Stars

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Comments 3 comments

Even the generation they passed the torch too is starting to fall a little!

pokermoneyclips 5 years ago

I saw this on Bluray a few weeks ago and liked it for what it was. Sandler has always appealed to a younger generation (I thought he was great when I was in middle school, now I can't even sit through Billy Madison) and that's the tone I felt from this movie as well. It's geared more towards middle and high school kids as opposed to the 18+ age group. I'd give it at least a 2.5 to maybe a 3 star just for the message it was trying to show us "Be nice to your kids, get them out of the house and away from the TV. They don't need to be spoiled to have fun, just let kids be kids."

bogerk 5 years ago from Midwest Author

Hi Tom -

Yeah even Will Ferrell and Seth Rogen and the gang seem to have lost it a bit.

I don't remember the last comedy I saw that I really laughed at.

Hi PokerMoneyClips -

That's true. I did like the idea of promoting kids to play outdoors more. But if Grown Ups was directed toward high school kids, I feel like it wasn't crazy enough.

It seemed to want to appeal to adults and to kids and in the end, it my opinion, it appealed to no one